Scholastic Summer Reading Program #SummerReading

This year’s Summer Reading theme is Reading Under the Stars, and is powered by EVEREADY®, the maker of batteries and flashlights, to encourage families to discover new and fun ways to explore reading outside this summer.

The day arrived, we were ready to host our Reading Under the Stars event in support and promotion of Scholastic Summer Reading Program and Summer Reading Challenge to get kids reading and ready for school! The parent packet was ready, the children packet was ready and we waited for our guests to arrive.

My children have been trying to keep up their reading this Summer and there is an app that you can use to track how many minutes your child is reading, just like I have been using. It’s called the Reading Timer App and can be downloaded on the Scholastic Summer reading website. Each of the children who attended our Reading Under the Stars Event also went home with a flashlight, provided by EVEREADY®.

Whether you are for or against the common core standards, they are indeed there and they are encouraging schools nationwide to kick up their reading and learning requirements –

It has been shown that Summer Slide accounts for 85% of the reading achievement gap between lower income students and their middle to upper income peers.

Summer reading lag can accumulate up to be an approximate two-year lag in reading by the time the child reaches middle school.

Children in third grade who cannot read at grade level are less likely to graduate high school by age 18 when compared to proficient readers.

It is vitally important to get children to read ahead, encouraging a love in reading is how I raised my trio here. I have read to all three children since the day they were born and now, at ages 11, 7 and 5 they are lovers of books {for the most part}. My son’s have to have a book that really intrigues them while my daughter could read any encyclopedia sized novel in just a couple of days if it were about astrology or Greek Mythology! The best way to ensure that your child doesn’t fall into that Summer Slide in the reading and learning department is to partake in reading programs all Summer long, that is why Scholastic came up with this Summer Reading Challenge – so more families could have a chance to get their kids reading while having a goal set in place in a fun, fabulous way!

My family decided to do our part this Summer and get some kids together for a Reading Under the Stars event, and sadly we planned it a wee bit too early to catch the stars in the sky, but everyone was at my home until about 10pm at night enjoy a wide range of fun. We started off by letting the boys get in a bit of electronic time, because my middle child has autism and is in that “routine” of when a friend comes over they do get to play on the PS3 for a bit, so we allowed that while the adults and older kids gabbed for bit.

After that, we got all the kiddos outside and these photos were captured of the group while they waited for the fire to start; we had a camp fire to roast hotdogs over and make smores over! When we party, we party! This time it was Scholastic Book style partying though! After everyone had their smores. We played a bit more …

Then the kids sat down around the older two girls and the girls read a story to them. Sure, the boys were not having this “story reading time” idea, they are like “no way are we sitting to read a book!” I get it, friends are over, you want to run, you want to play. So us Moms made the deal – you sit and read this book, or at least listen to Ki and Chey read it, then you can go play tag, eat blueberries from the blueberry bushes and whatever, but we are having story time even if we don’t have stars to read under right now. The boys sat.

The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge is a free, online/mobile reading program that helps prepare kids for back-to-school by encouraging them to read every day all summer long. So head over to check out the Scholastic Summer Reading Website in full details, there are things for kids, things for parents and even an area for teachers!

The parents of the children who attended my event went home with packets full of information about the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge and I can only hope that they take part in this fabulous program!

Written by brandyellen

Brandy is a born and raised New Hampshire resident who loves being a Mom to three wonderful children. When Brandy isn't writing, she is working part time as an Administrative Assistant. Author, with her daughter, of Positive Girl - The Power of Your Thoughts Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy as well as Terms of Use.

This article has 46 comments

My little one loves to read, so we do that every day no matter what, usually before bed. My daughter reads books on her Kindle, usually on car rides, but if it’s good enough, she’ll keep reading in the house.

My toddler has decided he does not need me to read to him at night. After I finish reading books, he reads one of his board books by himself. It encourages the reading habit, and it’s fun to hear him recite the story.

As a teacher I can attest to the summer slide…children come back to school in September unsure of a lot. They don’t remember quite a bit of the previous year. And so, the first month or so is dedicated to recapping what was lost during summer. Some kids catch back on quickly, others fall even further behind. It is especially crucial for the weaker children to get some work in. I love that this program encourages reading everyday. It is so important.

I used to look forward to getting the Scholastic book order form at school. I would read every single book blurb and circle the ones I wanted. Then, I would go home and beg my mom for all of them. We had a few parties too.